Managing Campaigns, Protests, and Diverse Opinions in the Workplace

By Sonjui L. Kumar

March 2017

Unless you have been in hiding, you will have noticed
that this has been a contentious time for the
country. Since Election Day, we have been bombarded
with news of the transition, Cabinet nominees,
protests, executive orders, travel restrictions, and most
recently, litigation in the courts. Every day brings unprecedented
headlines related to the election and the
new administration. Although historically, companies
have attempted to maintain the tried and true rule of
not discussing politics at work, this year feels different.
Anecdotally, through clients and peer firms, we hear
that the divisive national conversation has entered the
workplace. This creates a number of challenges for
management. Think of it like a weather event, as an
external factor that forces companies to make changes
to lessen the impact on their business.

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Productivity. Forbes is reporting that the state of the
nation is having a major impact on employee productivity.
During and after the election, people have been
spending an inordinate amount of time reading news,
posting opinions, following trending topics on social
media, and engaging in heated discussions in the office.
The amount of time spent on these activities has dramatically
increased due to the nature of this particular
election cycle. Management can institute policies, being
mindful of employees’ rights in that process. If
companies want to close down or limit access to nonwork-
related internet sites, consider the practicality of
enforcing the rules and the consequences of violating
them. Policies should be uniformly applied across
offices and employee levels. Note that restrictive
policies may be more practical and applicable in
certain environments, such as retail operations and
manufacturing facilities, rather than offices where
people work independently or remotely.

Employees’ rights. Although there may be business
reasons for limiting information access during
work hours, management should be careful about not
violating employees’ rights to engage in discourse. Generally,
political expression is legally protected speech,
so companies should not arbitrarily restrict employees
from expressing political opinions unless their statements
are considered to be harassing or intimidating.
Note that the behavior and words of management personnel
or supervisors is much more important than the
behavior and statements of line staff. A manager’s
words, actions, or opinions can be attributed to the
company and if deemed to be harassing or intimidating,
may put the company at risk of an adverse action.

Morale and company culture. If a company prides
itself on having a transparent environment and otherwise
encourages employees to express their views, restricting
political speech or opinions may run counter
to that culture. Employees may also find themselves at
odds with the opinions of the company’s leadership,
creating tensions in the office. In the past few weeks,
we have seen employees and consumers loudly protest
a company leadership’s participation in activities that
they disagree with, even those done privately. The resignation
of Uber’s CEO from the President’s Economic
Advisory Council is one example of the results of such
an internal protest. In another example, 100 technology
companies have filed a ‘friend of the court’ brief against
the President’s Executive Order that created the travel
ban, citing its impact on the employees and contractors.
These incidents highlight the importance of
companies and their management being sensitive to
and considering the opinions of their employees (and
consumers) before openly adopting political positions.

Tactics that have been successfully adopted by
companies include
• creating open dialogue meetings so that workers
can air their concerns and opinions;
• issuing company-wide communications
acknowledging the issues and asking for civility and
respect during work hours; and
• using facilitators to host discussions that allow
expression of diverse viewpoints.

Summary. To run smoothly and productively, businesses
must adjust their operations to accommodate
national events that impact their employees; provide
an environment that allows employees to express their
viewpoints respectfully; and consider the opinions of
employees and customers before the company or its
senior management participates in partisan activities
which may create public relations problems that
impact the bottom line.

Business Insights is hosted by the Law Firm of KPPB Law (www.kppblaw.com). Sonjui L. Kumar is a founding partner of KPPB Law, practicing in the area of corporate law and governance.
Disclaimer: This article is for general information purposes only, and does not constitute legal, tax, or other professional advice.

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